'Protest now or bow down later': 82-year-old Vietnam vet slams Trump

Roughly 2500 No Kings Day protests were, according to organizers, scheduled in cities all over the United States for Saturday, October 18. The events, expressing opposition to President Donald Trump's policies, were a follow-up to the previous No Kings Day marches and protests held on June 14.

MSNBC covered the No Kings protests extensively as they got underway. During Ali Velshi's show, the liberal-leaning cable news outlet interviewed participants in a No Kings rally in New York City — including attorney and MSNBC legal analyst Maya Wiley.

Another participant was 82-year-old Vietnam veteran Fred Pereira, who MSNBC's Antonia Hylton interviewed as protestors were marching along Manhattan's 7th Avenue.

Pereira, voicing his opposition to the methods used in Trump-era U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, told Hylton, "When I saw young kids being dragged out — I've dealt with real soldiers, American soldiers, North Vietnamese soldiers. These are real soldiers. These are brave men. Soldiers fight other soldiers. Soldiers do not fight women and children. What ICE is doing is outrageous. They are a paramilitary force. That's why I'm using the term soldier."

Hylton asked Pereira to address Americans who are "maybe fearful of taking part in a protest" because they're "worried that this administration will crack down on them or their loved ones."

The Vietnam vet responded by holding up an anti-Trump sign that read, "Protest now or bow down later."

Hylton, describing the size of the protest in Manhattan, reported, "We're now on 26th and 7th, and we have a producer who's more than ten blocks behind us and says there is no end in sight in terms of how far this protest is going. We're trying right now to get an updated estimate. Originally, they thought about 200,000 people. But right now, best guesses are that they far exceeded that."

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